D-Day Navy survivor remembers terror

Sixty-two years ago today, Jesse Myers, of South Bend, was "scared enough to almost wet my pants." "Who knows, maybe I did that, too," he adds. "Anybody who said they weren't scared on that day is a liar." He was 18 years old and part of the crew on an LST -- a landing ship tank -- heading for Omaha Beach. D-Day. June 6, 1944. "We could see a German tank up above the beach trying to give it to us," Jesse says. "We did get hit with some shrapnel, too." Jesse was a Seaman 1st Class and couldn't swim a lick. "I suppose I could dog paddle if I had to," says the 80-year-old Leiters Ford native. He didn't have to. His 327-foot-long ship -- LST-498 -- delivered troops and equipment and then headed back across the English Channel for more of both. "I didn't know how big that day was going to be in history," Jesse admits. "I was just 18 and didn't know much. After the war broke out, I figured I wouldn't live to be 20 anyway." He dropped out of high school and forged his dad's name so he could join the Navy. "My family didn't even know what I had done until four weeks later." Jesse thinks back to those days now and sometimes wonders how the years could have gone by so fast. It doesn't take much for him to remember the channel filled with ships as far as he could see ... the soldiers coming off his LST and struggling onto Omaha Beach ... and that German tank trying to blow them out of the water. "If you've seen the movie 'The Longest Day,' that at least gives you some idea of what it was like," he says. "I do know that several of the troops we transported over didn't make it." Another D-Day anniversary stirs those memories. Jesse observes this one from a bed in Memorial Hospital. He has gallbladder problems and awaits test results that will determine whether an operation is needed. He is not scared like he was on that LST 62 years ago, but he is concerned. Jesse feels like a lot of World War II veterans who are still alive. It's as if his body is slowly but surely falling apart on him. He has had a knee replacement, serious blood clots and failing eyesight. And now his gallbladder feels like a darn sword in his side. "I've felt better, that's for sure," he says. But then, he figures he already has lived 60 years longer than he expected. A veteran of 40 years at Uniroyal in Mishawaka and married to his wife Ramona for 58 years with three daughters, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, Jesse knows he can't complain about his life. He has lived a long one and has done his duty, too. "After D-Day, we kept bringing troops and equipment over from England while dodging U-boats," he says. And now it's as if his own body is his worst enemy. "But Jesse always has been a tough old guy," his wife, Ramona, says. "He got through the blood clots and he will probably get through this, too." He also made sure that he took his USS LST-498 cap with him to the hospital. It has a few years on it, too. "I do like to wear it when I'm out," he says. It means a lot to him. It shows he was a willing participant in one of the most significant days in the world's history Sixty-two years ago today. D-Day. "It's always been a part of me," he says. They may have to pull out Jesse's gallbladder, but that 18-year-old kid -- scared out of his wits but brave enough to do his job -- will always be inside him. Bill Moor's column appears on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Contact him at bmoor@sbtinfo.com, or write him at the South Bend Tribune, 225 W. Colfax Ave., South Bend, IN 46626; (574) 235-6072.